Microsoft launches a Bing app for the Apple Ipad

The app, which is free in Apple's App Store, has a number of interesting features, some of which are unique to the Ipad version of Bing.

It was designed from scratch to work with touchscreens, allowing users to search for anything using just the tips of their fingers.

There are buttons available for home, menu, search, back and voice. Additional menus pop down on the left depending on what is being searched for, and weather, news, maps, movies, trends and finance are all accessible from the main screen.

A trends feature is exclusive to the Ipad app, where the latest trends on Bing can be displayed. This allows people to see what the most popular searches are at the moment and it's likely that the success of trends on the Ipad will decide whether or not it gets implemented into other versions of Bing search engine apps.

The app can also save users' locations and will automatically display weather forecasts based on their current location. Up to five cities can be named to get weather forecasts with this feature.

The app itself is visually slick, a point that Microsoft was keen to highlight. It said the app offers a "visually rich" experience, but it also wanted to point out that it is both "beautiful and functional". µ